Yesterday Deadline‘s Mike Flemingreported that Ben Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor are “circling” The Has-Been, a Hoosiers-like basketball coach drama with elements that reflect Affleck’s own personal history.

Written by Brad Ingelsby, The Has-Been would star Affleck as “a former basketball all-star who has lost his wife and family foundation in a struggle with addiction” — an echo of what Affleck himself has been going through. Affleck’s character “attempts to regain his soul and salvation by becoming the coach of a disparate, ethnically mixed high school basketball team at his alma mater.”

If they want to really tell an Affleck tale they’ll set the high school in the Boston area, no?

Fans of Hoosiers will recall a similar personal-struggle plotline. A basketball coach with a spotty past (Gene Hackman) trying to overcome personal demons and get back in the game. Working with a high-school team, having to overcome various forms of resistance, having to summon all of his inner resources and discipline, etc.

The other Hoosiers echo, of course, is Dennis Hopper‘s performance as the town drunk, which led to a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom.